Railway car drop door



June 9, 1931. A. E. SMALL 1,809,645

RAILWAY CAR DROP DOOR OriginaLFiled April 25, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jlihg 9, 1931. A. E. SMALL. 1,809,645

' RAILWAY CAR DROP DOOR Original Filed April 25, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Afforne Patented June 9, 1931 warren sures PATENT QFFICE ARTHUR n. s vr LL, or onions Io, ILLINQEE ASSIGNOR 'ro UNION METAL rnonnczrs 1: C91Al$93 came/s9. I NQI- A Q E QBA JFP I newness BAFLWAY ee regress Original application filed t m as, 1929, Serial narassnos. mv qeg and this application-filed June 7,

' 1930. Serial u liness! T he invention relates to railway cars of the dumping type but more speclfically t the so-called general service gondola cars wherein the floor consists of a plurality of doors, which doors usually have one end hinged to the center construction of the car and the other end supported by the side wall of the car when the door is in closed position. Such doors are usually each provided with 1-3 a plurality of hinge elements and support elements, and I provide a beam element between each hinge element and its'opposite supporting elementl When two hinges are used to each door each of such beams supports sub-,-

"stantially of the load imposed .upon the door and where three hinge elements are used each beam supports substantially oneethird of the load imposed upon the door.

Such cars are provided with stops adjacent the sides of the door opening to restrict the downward movement of the door and the door is provided with bumpers to engage these stops. The stops are usually spaced to divide the length of the door into thirds acbording to known mechanical principles. 'I provide a beam element extending between the bumpers on the door which is substantlaL ly normal to the beam element extending between the hinge and supporting elements.

When the door is dropped the load follows the door and at the moment'or impact of the bumpers with the stops, this beam element carries substantially two-thirds ofthe load imposed upon the door. (See Fig. 2).

a hinged door for a railway car, which door is reinforcedby beam elements which function when the door is in closed position and another beam element which functions when ject of the invention is to secure co-operation betwen these different beam elements whereby each beam element reinforces each other beam element. In the drawings;

Figs. 1, 2 and 3 show a typical application of my invention to a railway car.

Figs. 4C, 5 and 6 show a form of the door in detail.

Fig. 7 shows a modified construction.

The object of this invention is to providethe door is in open position. Another ob- Figs.8, 9 and 10 are illustrative diagrams. In "the drawings the usual parts of the car are shown, such as center sills or center construction 1; cover plate 2; cross diaphragms 3; side wall 4; operating shaft 5; raising chain 6 and stop 7.

The door is provided with hinge elements 10 ad acent one end ther'eotw'hich engage the hinges'll mounted onthe center construction 1. The door is also provided with sup: port elements-12 adjacent the other end of the'door to which the raising chain 6 is secured. The term :support element means any means adjacent the outer end of thedo or which rests upon a part of the car proper to supv ort the door when in a'closed position. he door is furtherprovided with a pair of spaced apart ribs 13 which prefertend between the hinge and supportelements.

The door is also provided with another rib 17- parallel to the last mentioned ribs, which. together with the'last mentioned ribs, are so positioned as todivide the length of the door intofour substantially equal parts.

Fig l'ShQWS a modified construction of the door wherein a plurality of minor (and preferably shallower) ribs 20.21 are provided parallel with each of; the beamelementsso as to provide relatively smaller unsupported areas in the door. Theamountyof ribbing and depth thereof would depend upon the a size of the door and the load to be sustained. Ifthe doorsare large it may be necessary to provide flanges adjacent each end and side margin of the door, in which case the ribs forming the beam elements could merge into these flanges. i

As the ribs forming the beam element be- Ziaing between the opposite bumpers tween the bumpers must support a greater load than the other beam elements they are preferably deeper so as to make them relatively stronger.

The different beam elements cross each other and are so formed as to prevent either ;metal door.

Figs. 8, 9 and 10 are diagrams wherein Fig. 8 shows the beam elements a extending between the hinge elements 6 and supports and the other beam elements d extende. The shaded portion in Fig. 9 shows the area of the load supported by one of the beam elements a which is one-half of the load. The shaded'portion in Fig. 10 shows the area of "the load supported by the beam d which is about two-thirds of the load, thus the beam d should be one-third stronger than the beam a.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred form of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modifications thereof, within the scope of the claims, will occur to persons skilled in the art.

This is a division of my co-pending application Serial No. 358,008, filed April 25, 1929.

I claim:

1. A door for a railway dump car comprising hinge elements adjacent one end thereof, support elements adjacent the other end thereof, bumpers adjacent the opposite sides thereof, a pair of spaced apart ribs extending between each of the hinge elements and the opposite support elements which converge toward the hinge elements and support elements, respectively, and another rib sub stantially normal to the first mentioned ribs extending between said bumpers.

2. A door for a railway dump car comprising hinge elements adjacent one end thereof, support elements adjacent the other end thereof, bumpers adjacent the opposite sides thereof, a pair of spaced apart ribs extending between each of the hinge elements and the opposite support elements which converge toward the hinge elements and support elements, respectively, and another pair of spaced apart ribs substantially normal to the first mentioned ribs extending between said bumpers which converge toward the bumpers.

3. A door for a railway dump car comprising hinge elements adjacent one end thereof, support elements adjacent the other end thereof, bumpers adjacent the opposite sides thereof, a pair of spaced apart ribs extending between each of the hinge elements and the opposite support elements which converge toward the hinge elements and support elements, respectively, and another rib substantially normal to the first mentioned ribs extending between said bumpers, and a plurality of ribs substantially parallel to the first mentioned ribs.

4. A door for a railway dump car comprising hinge elements adjacent one end thereof, support elements adjacent the other end thereof, bumpers adjacent the opposite sides thereof, a pair of spaced apart ribs extending between each of the hinge elements and the opposite support elements which converge toward the hinge elements and support elements, respectively, and another rib substantially normal to the first mentioned ribs extending between said bumpers, and a plurality of ribs substantially parallel to the first mentioned ribs, and a plurality of ribs substantially parallel to the rib extending between the bumpers.

5. In a railway car having a door opening and a door therefor, the combination of hinge members adjacent one end of the opening,

support members adjacent the opposite end of the opening to support the door in closed position'and door stops on the opposite sides of the opening to support the door in open position, said door provided with a pair of ribs extending between each hinge member and the opposite support member which converge toward the hinge member and support member, respectively, said door also provided with another pair of ribs extending between the portions of the door which engage said stops which converge toward said portions.

ARTHUR E. SMALL. 

